It is common to provide ditches alongside roadways and the like to direct water away from roads and properties. Over time, such ditches can be filled with sediment or dirt and the like which is washed into the ditch by precipitation. Accordingly, it is desirable to periodically clear existing ditches to maintain flow capacity therein. It is further desirable on occasion to create new and/or deeper ditches where necessary to accommodate different water flows.
One common tool for clearing ditches is an excavator with a bucket supported on the end of a boom, but clearing ditches in this manner is a long and tedious task when clearing long lengths of ditches. Also bucket excavators tend to remove dirt in full buckets which then require suitable disposal.
In view of the above, various ditching devices have been developed which use a rotary disc. Examples of such devices can be found in European patent 1319761 by Greffet et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,767 by Cartner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,280 by Haigh, U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,020 by Beslin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,715 by Cartner, U.S. Pat. No. 1,762,441 by Johnson and U.S. Pat. No. 2,942,360 by Hawkins et al. Known devices however tend to be large and cumbersome and are not readily adaptable to commonly available bucket excavators of the type used for clearing ditches in many instances.